Recommended by Daniel Prillaman

A passionate, lyrical critique of academia that provokes thought and mirth in equal measure, Espinoza stitches her song with the steady and seasoned measure of a lifelong storyteller, asking questions of identity and how we might honor our ancestors without compromising ourselves. Most lovingly, while her characters all have different opinions, she condemns none of them, and they spur each other on in delicious conflict. PRODUCE THIS PLAY. It is a classic that has already waited too long for its time on the stage.

The best comedy takes nothing more seriously than itself, so it is difficult to state how much of a treat it is to see two women who take a third grade art contest more seriously than some people take their entire lives. Mmes. Notting and Crull are hilarious and over-the-top in the most glorious of ways, placing our tie-breaker in a situation we would never want to find ourselves in, but take great delight in watching. A positive, non-stop little comedy that will bring down the house, no matter the age of the audience.

A chilling, sobering keening of anguish, hope, love, hate, and everything in between, "Americanah" is a stellar piece of theatre that demands staging. Wardally’s dialogue is poetic and evocative, and I can only imagine the ferocity and power of the images that a company could conjure with her blueprint. It is nothing less than a tour de force. Read this. Produce this. Break the circle.

An amusing twist takes the classic game down a surprisingly cute and sex positive road. It’s always a treat to read something that makes you laugh, but even more so something where you just can’t help but smile. A great sketch-length play sure to entertain the whole audience.

There’s nothing quite like a well-placed umbrella. Floyd-Priskorn’s tale of a maid’s plight is a delightful, farcical romp that twists and mutates all the way to the close, never failing to surprise or induce copious amounts of laughter. With a blissfully unaware master of the house atop all the physical comedy, this would make a great addition to short play festivals everywhere.

Disturbing, lol-inducing, and thought-provoking, Locke’s play is an engrossing exploration of allyship, helping our fellow humans, and the cost of achieving our dreams. The pace is brilliant, slow burning like a pressure cooker, populated by pitch-perfect characters who feel natural and real. Wonderful work.

This is a powerful piece of theatre that deserves production everywhere. It is elegant. It is brutal. It is honest. It NAILS what real anxiety looks like. This is my first encounter with Henry’s work, and she immediately reveals herself as a master of pace and dialogue, the latter of which, like the lake in the play, holds so much beneath its surface. Her characters leapt off the page and rooted themselves in me as I read, and I can only imagine what a staged production would do. Stage this play.

A spooky, funny, non-stop ride of a penny dreadful!! Danley has written not only an expansive and FUN cast of characters, but she fits them into an enticing, well-paced mystery with genuinely surprising twists and turns. Furthermore, it’s rare to read a play with so much adventure in its stage directions. I cannot emphasize enough the endless possibilities for design this play has. You could stage it in hundreds of different ways. And I would be in the audience for each one.

Simple in premise, yet superbly layered in execution, Seidel has written a delicious and cutthroat tale that leaves us questioning our humanity long after the final words. The dialogue is rich and gripping, and coupled with the play’s vivid stage direction, actors and artistic teams would have no end of fun creating the timeless conflict of its world. I would love to see this live.

Conrad gives us a creepy, dense little horror both poetic in its rhythms and evocative in its imagery. You feel the dread in your bones from the characters’ first exchange, and it does nothing but build all the way to the final page. Nice work!